Inspirational Quote Project

This is always a favorite project to do with students (both for teachers and students!) because it lends itself perfectly to creativity and there are lots of different ways you could go with it. The possibilities for writing, evaluating, forming an opinion, and learning more about your students are truly endless with this project. And administrators- this would even be a fun project to completed with your staff! Check it out!

Projects like these allow our students to be creative. It gives them choice in their learning (in the quote they choose, and the actual creation of their project) and students feel a sense of pride in their work. No projects will turn out exactly alike, even if students choose the same quote.

The critical thinking component is apparent when we ask students to evaluate the quote they've chosen and to dig a little deeper into it's meaning. We can also ask students to make connections to the quote, and write a narrative about how the quote impacts them and why they chose it. The possibilities with this project are truly endless.

Scan the QR codes to explore inspirational quotes. Find one that really stands out to you and speaks to you. Write your quote down. Make sure to cite where the quote came from, and take note of who said the quote. (Teachers- this is a great lesson on citation!)

Take a selfie or have a friend take a picture for you.

Make sure to pay attention to the background (plain, solid backgrounds work the best for this project) and leave some space, somewhere for your quote. (You don't want your quote to be covering your face!)

Launch an app that allows you to layer Photos and Text. Pic Collage, Seesaw, Google Slides, or Phonto are some on my favorites.

Add your quote to your photo. Have fun stylizing and editing. Just make sure your quote is easy to read for others (you can always go back and make a fancy hard-to-read one if you want later)!

Don't forget to save your quote project to your device.

Here's a quick video on how to do this with PicCollage EDU. (Teachers- the difference between PicCollage and PicCollage EDU is that EDU has no social sharing options, there are no ads, and no accounts are required. Read more here.)

Feel free to share this video with your students as well- it's a step by step video.

 

Now that students have created these beautiful inspirational quote projects, the big question to ask is- What will you do with them now? Print them out? Hang them on your wall? It surely would make a nice bulletin board! Turn them in to Google Classroom? But then what? 

But how do we take it one step further?

How are we sharing student work with the world to inspire others?

Twitter? A class blog? Class Instagram account? Seesaw?

Print them out to hang around the school and inspire other students? 

I challenge you to make sure you aren't missing this last step, because it oftentimes gets overlooked, and it may possibly be the most important and motivating step for our students. Giving students an audience for their work is essential.  

Happy creating!

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Getting Started with Seesaw

Have you heard about Seesaw? Are you wondering how to get started? I'm here to help you and your students!

Seesaw is a Digital Learning Portfolio for students. I feel funny typing that, because it's truly SO much more, and has the ability to help you flip your classroom, to create a student centered classroom, to break down the walls of your classroom to connect with other classes around the world, to allow your students to connect with each other and their families which gives them an audience, to turn your students into bloggers, and SO. Much. More!

First, you'll want to decide on the Settings for your class in Seesaw. Check out this video to get started.

If you're ready to get started, first you'll download the Getting Started Challenges for your students here. These Challenges are designed to get you and your students familiar with the upload tools in Seesaw. This is how the students upload their awesome work to their learning journal! Once you're familiar with these, the possibilities for you and your students are truly endless!

Next, watch these videos. There's one video for each challenge, and the video will walk you through each challenge in Seesaw. I would suggest running through each Challenge on your own before you show your students, and complete the Challenges yourself. You can even do this along with the videos! This way, when you introduce the challenge to your students, you'll have some background knowledge and a better understanding of how Seesaw works! (Don't worry- these videos are all super short and under five minutes!) 

Challenge #1

Challenge #2

Challenge #3

Challenge #4

Challenge #5

Challenge #6 (This is if you and your students are using G-Suite apps in your classroom).

You might also be interested in learning how to create Folders in Seesaw to keep the Challenges organized! 

Now you're ready to introduce the Challenges to your students.

You can introduce the Challenges one at a time with your students. I've found this works well for younger students- I model, then they try it out. Then I introduce another challenge, model it, they do, etc. until they've gotten through all of them.

For older students, they don't tend to need as much scaffolding, so

Make sure to check out the other Seesaw Challenges available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!

I also post Instagram stories on Seesaw often (that's where all of those videos came from!) so make sure to stop by and say hi there!

You can also stop by my YouTube page where I upload the Seesaw videos as well!

Do you have questions? Ideas? Please leave a comment! I'd love to hear how you are using Seesaw in your classroom! And if you're not, I'd love to help you get started! Just let me know how!

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